O Pioneers review, A Novel Without a Hero

This review of O Pioneers contrasts Cather’s opinions in Nebraska which applauds the immigrant effect on the frontier and calls it distinctly European, by instead calls O Pioneers “a tale that is American in the best sense of the word.” The review does not elaborate on what it means by this, in fact it goes so far as to point out how much the story O Pioneers contradicts the average American’s aspirations which do not involve back breaking work on the field. One thing the review does observe is that the novel is a feminist piece, and points to Alexandra and Maria as the heroines of the novel in addition to Mother Earth.

One thought on “O Pioneers review, A Novel Without a Hero

  1. mieng

    I agree that this review might contrast with Cather’s point of view. However, one thing I could say about this writer is that he wanted to point out the uniqueness of Cather’s work. He tried to convince that in almost every novel, the heroine started out from their land and finally succeed in a new land, but for O”Pioneer!, the heroine is the land itself and the people who success in that land, which is Nebraska.

Leave a Reply